Mage and Warrior
by Jordanna Morgan
Summary: A little place for a collection of genfic drabbles about Fai and Kurogane.
1. Annoyance

**Title:** Annoyance  
 **Author:** Jordanna Morgan  
 **Archive Rights:** Please request the author's consent.  
 **Rating/Warnings:** G.  
 **Characters:** Fai and Kurogane.  
 **Setting:** General.  
 **Summary:** Everyone thought Fai was the one who annoyed Kurogane.  
 **Disclaimer:** They belong to CLAMP. I'm just playing with them.  
 **Additional Disclaimer:** This work is written purely as genfic. Please respect it as such.  
 **Notes:** This is not the first "Tsubasa Chronicle" work I have written (due to a pending fic exchange), but it is the first to be posted. Just a quick two hundred words about the dynamic between Fai and Kurogane, which I expect to be the start of a small drabble collection.

* * *

Everyone thought Fai was the one who annoyed Kurogane.

It was an understandable misconception, of course, what with the nicknames and teasing and invading of Kurogane's personal space. After all, he certainly grumbled enough about it. He behaved as if the mage's presence was some sort of divine punishment, reserved especially for him by whatever disgruntled deities his people believed in.

Yet the funny thing was, if he really didn't like it, he could have resolved the issue simply by doing nothing at all. His problem was that he just couldn't let well enough alone, either—which is why it was his own fault.

Because, while the pestering games were mere obfuscation and self-amusement at first, in time they had evolved into more of a _re_ action than an action. A sort of retaliation, albeit in a good-natured guise.

If Fai had only been left to himself, sooner or later on their journey, he would have found some enemy to run afoul of; some sacrifice to make. Some convenient excuse to _let go_.

But instead, time and again, Kurogane stubbornly demanded that he _live_ …

And the truth was, that annoyed Fai much more than all his teasing ever could in turn.

* * *

 _© 2015 Jordanna Morgan_


	2. Strategic Shift

**Title:** Strategic Shift  
 **Author:** Jordanna Morgan  
 **Archive Rights:** Please request the author's consent.  
 **Rating/Warnings:** PG for discreet vampiric behavior.  
 **Characters:** Kurogane and Fai.  
 **Setting:** During the Infinity arc.  
 **Summary:** Fai's style of fighting had changed since his transformation into a vampire.  
 **Disclaimer:** They belong to CLAMP. I'm just playing with them.  
 **Additional Disclaimer:** This work is written purely as genfic. Please respect it as such.  
 **Notes:** Merely a small exploration of an idea—because I've spent many years overthinking vampire habits in fiction and roleplaying. _*g*_ At 397 words, this ficlet just barely squeezes under my limit for inclusion in a drabble/microfic collection.

* * *

Fai's style of fighting had changed since his transformation into a vampire.

It was something Kurogane had ample opportunity to observe in Infinity, while they acted as pawns in human chess matches. In one sense, he knew Fai was still holding back more than ever: not only his remaining magic now, but his newly gained vampiric physical strength. Kurogane had the sense that if he wanted to, the mage could have truly harmed their opponents with a frightening ease.

But there was more to it, as well. Fai's tactics had always been based upon evading and frustrating foes with his agility, rarely ever giving them a chance to touch him. Yet now, with his greatly increased endurance, he was quick to throw himself forward into the enemy's path—and often _between_ the enemy and his comrades. He used his own body as a shield, taking blows meant for Kurogane and Syaoran.

His new regenerative powers meant that he felt the hits only briefly. However, there was still a price to be paid for the effort his body expended in rapid healing… and as Fai's personal blood bank, that price was Kurogane's responsibility.

On occasion, Fai would avail himself of a quick, discreet boost during combat.

When Kurogane turned from felling an opponent, only to find another almost on top of him, Fai was suddenly in the way. He took the swing of the man's club with hardly a grunt—and then neatly toppled him, twisting to clout him upside the head with the pommel of his sword.

Without comment on the assistance, Kurogane turned to seek a new target; but slim fingers suddenly twined around his wrist, seizing his free hand. His breath caught as he felt a warm tongue on his skin, hastily flicking across a small cut an opponent had landed to his forearm.

By the time the warrior glanced backward, Fai had released his arm, but the yellow gleam of the vampire's eye gave him away. He smiled thinly, offering an apologetic shrug. His visible bruises were already fading with new swiftness.

That small taste was not only to Fai's benefit. The sting of the cut immediately lessened, affected by properties in Fai's saliva that promoted the healing of his prey as well…

But _still_. Not here, and not _now_.

"…Save it for _later_ ," Kurogane muttered brusquely, and returned his attention to the battle.

* * *

 _© 2015 Jordanna Morgan_


	3. Dark Eyes

**Title:** Dark Eyes  
 **Author:** Jordanna Morgan  
 **Archive Rights:** Please request the author's consent.  
 **Rating/Warnings:** G.  
 **Characters:** Fai, with a glimpse of Kurogane.  
 **Setting:** Shura Country, soon after Fai and Kurogane begin their sojourn with King Yasha.  
 **Summary:** Fai reacts to the changing color of his eyes in Shura Country.  
 **Disclaimer:** They belong to CLAMP. I'm just playing with them.  
 **Notes:** Considering the huge significance of Fai's eyes and their blue color, I figure he must have initially been disturbed when they began to turn black in Shura Country. This is my small take on what he might have thought.

* * *

There was no longer any doubt about it. Something in the environment of Shura Country was causing the eyes of Fai and Kurogane to grow steadily darker in color.

In the elegant room where King Yasha had invited them to stay, Fai studied his eyes frowningly in a polished-metal mirror. He tilted his head, fingertips gently lifting his eyelids for closer inspection. In the few days since their arrival here, the once sky-bright blue orbs he gazed out from had deepened to stormy cerulean, and he saw no sign that the progression of this change was slowing.

Reclining on a pile of sitting-cushions behind Fai, Kurogane muttered something—although, in Mokona's absence, Fai perceived the words as merely a gruff patter of noise. He glanced over his shoulder to see the warrior looking at him skeptically. Kurogane's own fierce ruby eyes were dulled now to garnet, their color fading even faster.

Fai could only offer a shrug and a hollow smile… and then his gaze slowly, inexorably drifted back to the mirror.

Even if they could have communicated, he couldn't have told Kurogane what disturbed him so. His traveling companions remained unaware that his eyes were the source of his magic.

Confronted by an unknown phenomenon that touched this vital core of his being, Fai couldn't help feeling unsettled and strangely vulnerable. When he first realized Kurogane's eyes truly _were_ changing, and then his own, he wondered with a shock of alarm if some magical attack had been set upon them. Perhaps _he_ was the one being targeted, by a force meant to steal or destroy his power. Yet he sensed no foreign magic encroaching upon his own; and its affecting his very non-magical friend seemed to confirm it was something natural here. Still, it was haunting to watch the eclipse of his once-vivid irises, seemingly a little darker now with each passing hour.

In the end, maybe what troubled him most was that it _wasn't_ affecting his magic.

If it really would have leeched his power from him…

Then, maybe he would be _free_.

But he felt the weight of his magic—his _curse_ —still inside him. There would be no such easy release from his fears of what was yet to come.

Fai stared into the mirror, and let himself wish the darkness in his eyes would consume the shadows in his soul.

* * *

 _© 2015 Jordanna Morgan_


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